Rise to the Calling
'A Baldurian Primal Wizard' Here's a sample build of a wizard who had the benefit of growing up and living in the Stonehearth sphere of influence. All else being equal (it isn't), this is the average citizen of the Marquisate, roughly 35% of Baldur's Gate residents and perhaps 20% (and growing) around the rest of the Commonwealth. Note that any Lantan or Halruaa characters are going to skew their skills in the direction of those cultures. Lantan tends to emphasize magical-mechanical interface, while Halruaa defines traditional casting. That's one of the major issues preventing wider Primal adoption in Halruua: they're descendants of Netheril, with direct connection to the Nether Scrolls. The real resistance to change stems directly from Weave vs Raw social dissonance. Meet Jo... Jo is the player who has decided to roll some sort of spell-slinger. We'll follow Jo as they go through the build of a character influenced by primal magic, from direct effects to living in an area that has had the benefit of a primal-driven development and economy. Jo is thinking of given names for the character when "Raflan" bubbles up. Jo is thinking "guy," and that it feels somewhere between rakish and cuddly: just the vibe they're looking for. "Canter" pops to mind as a surname and feels like a truncation of "enchanter." This is providing a little inspiration. Let's go step-by-step according to the Character Construction ''' page... '''Meet Raflan Canter 1) Choose a race Jo has a ton of experience as a human, so makes the character a human, too. Fitting in with the vast majority of the Baldurian population, they'll blend into the crowd. More than just a low profile in the big city, it also works as kind of a comfort-zone thing for the player. 2) Create a Background Jo is leaning Sorcerer, it would go with that rakish thing, but decides they're going to flesh out the character and see what happens. This is when that "Canter" name floats by and Jo decides to use it to define their background: Raflan comes from a long line of enchanters, making magical stuff. Jo speaks to the DM who's organizing the campaign and finds out that other players are looking to start on the "Allies" course. Jo's character will be the only one who has actual Primal Magic training, and they will likely roleplay meeting the rest of the group as Raflan follows a clue on disrupting a cult of Bhaal. Not wanting to seem too rah-rah about being from Stonehearth-influenced parts of Baldur's Gate, Jo digs a little deeper into the campaign background. After some browsing, they decide they like the idea of Stonehearth, but they're still skeptical. This translates into a character that has mixed emotions about the House. After perusing the timeline, Jo comes up with this: 3) Choose a Class It's a given that Raflan is a caster, enchanting scrolls and all, but what about those casting classes? After a review, Sorcerer had the momentum, but now "Wizard" is starting to make more sense. Jo formalizes the decision. Raflan informs Jo that he's actually been a Wizard-1 for several years, but hasn't gone anywhere with it. After the initial learning curve on casting and enchanting, not to mention the substantial power he has even as a level-1, he hit a plateau in skill progression and was never challenged enough to level up. With the recent action in Baldur's Gate, and all the scroll-guilt weighing on him, he wouldn't mind murdering the god of murder. This might be influenced by Jo's previous experience: they've played a wizard before and knows the class inside out. They know their Player's Handbook, but the Primal Magic Campaign changes things. To see if this really is the right decision, they look at the campaign guide to the Wizard class... Yup: wizard it is... Being a Primal Wizard is a game-changer. Raflan was trained in Stonehearth-sponsored contractor schools, so even as a level-1, he's learned the three key feats of primal casting: * Constructive Retention * Regenerative Energization * Progressive Memorization Because of the Retention-Memorization synchronicity, Raflan can memorize twice the number of spells, including cantrips. 4) Determine Ability Scores Jo is going to use a point pool to build their character. Based on their background of being in Baldur's Gate but dealing closely with Stonehearth over several generations, they qualify as Marquisate natives. This provides a very respectable 31-point pool. Jo knows the whole Min-Maxing trope but is wary of weak spots, so decides on this build: * 10/14/10/15/15/10 This is an average citizen's strength, constitution and charisma, with nimble dexterity and an exceptional sense of Intelligence and Wisdom – two key traits for casting Primal magic. Between the background and the ability scores, Jo can now fill out the other class mechanics details, like features, feats, what spells Raflan has in his spell book and so on. Again, that campaign wizard class page will be very helpful here. When the allies see how fast Raflan's spells recharge, they're... to be surprised. After completing their quest, there's a good chance the party is going to travel back to North Point (or Baldur's Gate) so the allies can learn primal ways. 5) Describe the Character Raflan tries on a few outfits, shaves, puts on a beard and walks the catwalk until Jo can come up with a physical description befitting the name Raflan Canter. As expected, it paints the picture of someone who is rakish but lovable. That probably would've worked well as a rogue, too, but this one is going to be a spell slinger who puts on a good face, but is pained by his own dark drive for vigilante justice... 6) Choose Equipment This is going by PMC guidelines, not PHB standards, so Raflan has all the resources of his family available as he sets out on the dangerous adventurer's journey. Raflan has a horse (and saddle, etc.), a bag of holding, his spell book, a low level Wand of Casting, and a satchel of 180 gp. His plan is to hire the other adventurers as he follows his quest to bring justice to followers of Bhaal. 7) Come Together With Raflan now comfortably ensconced on a character sheet, Jo plays through the modified casting rules in a test Session Zero with the DM. In that, the DM goes on to guide Jo-Raflan through a tearful farewell of the family as he sets out on a boat to Neverwinter, where's he's heard rumors that there's a Cult of Bhaal. When everybody is ready, they gather snacks, bring the group together and get this campaign's Session One rolling... Where to From Here? * Let's go back to the [[Character construction|'Character Construction' page]]... * Okay, if it's 1489, my character was born in the early 1460s. Let's browse those years to see what they've lived through... * This might be a little too OP, honestly. [[Stonehearth Allies|'What are the ally paths?']] * This looks interesting, but trolls and liches, ya know? [[The ArCorps|'Just how potent are the ArCorps wizards?']] Category:Player-Character Notes __NOEDITSECTION__